Heavy Body vs. Soft Body Acrylics

If you’ve ever been art supply shopping, you know there’s always a ton of options (especially at Keeton’s!) including canvas, paint, brushes, medium, etc. Acrylic paints are no different. Even if you have it narrowed down to the brand and colors you’re looking for, you will also have to think about grade (student vs. artist) and body. In this post, we’ll focus on body and how each type differs. Typically you have heavy body (thick) and soft body (creamy), but Liquitex also offers super heavy body and ink, which we will also discuss. Let’s take a look at the amazing things that can be done with acrylic paints!

In this post, we focused on Liquitex paints but Golden offers a range of options as well such as heavy body, fluid, Open acrylics (slow drying formula), and airbrush colors. Next time you’re shopping for supplies, instead of picking up the usual heavy body acrylic paint, try something new and experiment. For application advice, just ask one of our art experts – they are always happy to help!

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2 thoughts on “Heavy Body vs. Soft Body Acrylics”

I tried looking for the liquitex super heavy body acrylic paint but the only thing i found was super heavy body gel and super heavy body gesso. Do you know where i can find super heavy body acrylic paint?

That’s a great question Matt. We only carry the heavy body paint here at Keeton’s. But it looks like you can go onto the Liquitex website and search for stores that do carry it in your area. Here’s a link to their page: http://www.liquitex.com/SuperHeavyBody/ You’ll just want to click the “buy” button from there.